Sharks 08-09 Review: Goaltending

UFA - Unrestricted Free Agent - Can sign with anyone

RFA - Restricted Free Agent - If signs contract with another team, Original team has right to match contract, or let player go for draft picks.

Goaltending
The Doug Wilson/Dean Lambardi philosphy was to build from the back forward. Doing that we start off at the Goaltending.

Evgeni Nabokov - The Starting Goalie had a great regular season. He still won alot of games, even missing out 2 stretches of games. Still 2nd in the league with wins. The question is what to do now? He has not been able to lead this team to the Stanley Cup Finals. He, like Joe Thornton, is getting a reputation of not being a playoff performer. He needed to steal a game, and he couldn't. Perhaps the most important is that Nabby is 33 yrs old. He probably only has 2-3 years of good quality goaltending. This year the Sharks will proably draft a goalie, and groom that person to take over in the 2-3 years later. Of course if the Sharks stink, Nabby could be gone sooner.

Brian Boucher (FREE AGENT) - There were two stretches where Nabokov was injured. First stretch, the Sharks were unbeatable, and so was Bouch. The second strectch, the Sharks were playing average. And so did Boucher. He's a good backup who is hot is hot, who is not, is not. He could be back next year. Hard to tell what kind of backups will be available next year.

Thomas Griess (Restricted Free Agent) - Another year in the Minors. Part-time backup when Nabokov was hurt. Is this guy going to get an opportunity? It has to be coming up soon, otherwise he'll go the way of his buddy Dimitri Pazold. Then Tyson Sexsmith and Taylor Dakers will have the next opportunity.

If you missed it, here's the other reviews:
Management
Goaltending
Defensemen
Forwards